Millions of dollars of World Bank funds - set to be paid to projects in Cambodia - have been suspended after corruption was found at the schemes. The Cambodian government, which doles out the payments, froze the money after the bank uncovered a misuse of funds and irregularities in seven projects. Cash for three ongoing infrastructure and water sanitation schemes, worth more than $64m, has been stopped. Another four projects under suspicion, had already been completed. In a letter to colleagues, Cambodia's finance minister Keat Chhon said the World Bank had informed him of "irregularities" in the projects and that money may have to be paid back. ... http://news.bbc.co.uk

A Canadian newspaper has apologized for publishing an erroneous story last week that said the Iranian parliament had passed a law requiring Jews and Christians to wear badges identifying them as religious minorities in public. The story published in the National Post last Friday has stirred up an international row, and the Iranian government on Wednesday summoned Canada's ambassador to the foreign ministry in Tehran. Iran's conservative parliament last week began debating a draft law that would discourage women from wearing Western clothing and encourage citizens to wear Islamic-style garments. The measure provoked outrage outside Iran after the National Post, a conservative national daily, reported that the bill included provisions requiring Jews, Christians and other non-Muslims to wear a patch of colored cloth on the front of their garments — in a chilling throwback to Nazi Germany, when Jews were forced to wear the yellow star of David. ...http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/25/world/main1655657.shtml?source=RSS&attr=World_1655657

A group of US volunteers that has been patrolling the frontier with Mexico to stop illegal immigrants has started building a fence along the border. The Minutemen group plans to erect a combination of barbed wire, razor wire and steel barriers along a 10-mile (16km) stretch of privately-owned land. Hundreds of volunteers gathered in Arizona for an inauguration ceremony. The Minutemen are allowed to report illegal crossings to border police but have no right to arrest suspects. Human rights groups have accused the Minutemen of xenophobia towards illegal immigrants - but the group denies this. US President George W Bush backs plans to curb illegal immigration by extending a fence along the Mexican border and increasing the number of patrols along it. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5025158.stm

The foreign minister of the Hamas-led Palestinian government has dismissed a threatened referendum on a two-state solution to the conflict with Israel. Mahmoud Zahhar insisted the vote would be a waste of time and his cash-starved administration had no funds to hold it. "Nobody can trust Israel... Nobody will recognise Israel," he said in Malaysia. Earlier, he left a Non Aligned Movement meeting in protest at the presence of a top member of Fatah, the rival faction which proposed the referendum. "I can't stand side by side with a man who is not representing the Palestinian government. He is playing a dirty game," Mr Zahhar said. He was referring to senior Fatah official Farouk Kaddoumi, who had presented himself as head of the Palestinian delegation and added insult to injury by announcing he intended to "train" Mr Zahhar in diplomacy. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5027248.stm

Bush, visiting America's most hallowed military burial ground to "honor this place where valor sleeps," said Monday the nation must persevere in the war against terrorists for the sake of those have already given their lives in the cause.Noting that some 270 fighting men and women of the nearly 2,500 who have fallen since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, are buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Bush said, "We have seen the costs in the war on terror that we fight today.""I am in awe of the men and women who sacrifice for the freedom of the United States of America," the president declared, drawing a long standing ovation from the troops, families of the fallen and others gathered at the cemetery's 5,000-seat white marble ampitheater."Here in the presence of veterans they fought with and loved ones whose pictures they carried," he said, "the fallen give silent witness to the price of liberty and our nation honors them this day and every day."...http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/29/ap/national/mainD8HTHJS82.shtml

The number of Guantanamo Bay detainees staging a hunger strike has grown from three to 75, the U.S. military said Monday, reflecting increasing defiance among men who have been held for up to 4 1/2 years, most without charges and with little contact with the outside world. Navy Cmdr. Robert Durand said the ballooning number of hunger strikers was an "attention-getting" move that may be related to a May 18 clash between 10 detainees and 10 U.S. military guards in which six detainees were injured. The same day, two detainees also overdosed on anti-depressant drugs they had been hoarding. They have since regained consciousness. "The hunger strike technique is consistent with al-Qaida practice and reflects detainee attempts to elicit media attention to bring international pressure on the United States to release them back to the battlefield," Durand said from the base.Seventy-six detainees began the hunger strike in August to protest their indefinite confinement. ...http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/29/ap/world/mainD8HTH4N80.shtml